Joseph was born around 1897 in Aysgarth North Yorkshire. His father James was a cowman on a local farm. The 1911 census shows one other child, a son Simon. Before joining up Joseph was employed as a farm hand in West Burton.
Joseph enlisted at Leyburn joining the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. By September 1916 he was at the front. Joseph would prove to be a brave soldier, twice being recommended for distinction. He was finally rewarded at the end of April 1918 when he received the Military Medal for gallantry he had shown during the action in the St. Quentin area from March 21st to the 28th. Sadly one week later he was dead. On the 6th May the Battalion was in the Ypres Salient. During heavy engagements with the enemy he was killed on the 8th May. He was 21 years of age.
His body was never recovered. Private Joseph Dixon Raw MM is commemorated at the Tyne Cot Cemetery.
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Leslie Hanson Marriage
Reasearched by John Mills. Leslie Hanson Marriage was born in Chelmsford in 1892. He was educated at Marlborough College from 1905 to 1910 and in the summer of 1910 passed into the Royal Military College Sandhurst. He left in late 1911 and was commissioned on the 20th September as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Yorkshire Regiment. He made Lieutenant on the 2nd September 1914. He went to France with the 2nd Battalion and was wounded near Ypres on the 29th October 1914. He served with the Motor Machine Gun Corps in France from 10th August 1915 and was again wounded in March 1916. This time his wounds were described as ‘shell shock’ though the actual details are unknown. He was repatriated to England for rehabilitation. Six months later in November 1916 he was fit enough to be given command of a Home Cadet Battalion. In November 1917 he was appointed to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. April 1918 would see him back in France second in command of the 74th MGC taking part in the action around the Somme and Albert to the Hindenburg Line in September 1918. He was promoted to acting Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1918. He volunteered for service in Russia for which he sailed in May 1919. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1920 and retired from the Army in September 1922. He married in 1926 and died in 1935.
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Thomas Ginger
Lieutenant Thomas Ginger. Signals Officer. 4th Battalion. Thomas Ginger was awarded the Military Cross as a result of his bravery during the German ‘Spring Offensive’ of March 1918. In the citation for his award it describes how ‘On the first day his senior Officers were killed and in numerous rear-guard actions he found himself in command of considerable bodies of men’. One such example is during the retreat across the River Somme near Brie, when Ginger was ordered to take his men and cover the retreat of the remains of the 50th Division. He took his tired men to the far bank and took up positions to hold the advancing Germans back. At the same Lt George Begg, 239/Field Company was wiring the bridge that the retreating men were crossing. As German troops started to appear on the horizon and the last of the Durham Light Infantry crossed the bridge, Begg primed the detonator and pressed the plunger home. Nothing happened. This was repreated three times. When the bridge did blow, Begg looked across the river to see Ginger and his men still focusing fire on their foe. Eventually Ginger managed to construct a rudimentary footbridge, allowing his men to cross to safety.
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Sergeant William James Denton Milson D.C.M.
Sergeant William James Denton Milson 7813 D.C.M. 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. This story was submitted by Andrew Hume Voegeli. Serjeant Milson was the brother of his maternal grandmother Lily Muriel Boyes (nee Milson) born in Beverley in 1896. William James Denton Milson was born on the 1st of February 1890 in the Parish of St Mary’s Beverley Yorkshire. He was the eldest of 6 children, his father was William Carr Milson and his mother was Ann Maria Milson, nee Cooper. His father was a boot maker but did serve in several regiments including the Yorkshire Regiment. Young William enlisted in the Yorkshire Regiment aged 14 years and 7 months on the 24th of August 1904 as a drummer boy. He was 4 feet 11 inches tall, had a fair complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair. He was working as a message boy at that time. Before the outbreak of World War 1 he served in India. On the 6th of October 1914 he landed at Zeebrugge and took part in the 1st Battle of Ypres. By 1915 his leadership skills led to his promotion to Serjeant. On the 15th of March 1915 he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (D.C.M.) for leading a rescue party for men trapped under continuous sniper fire. The Yorkshire regiment gazette recorded this as follows: “D.C.M.s have been awarded to Sergt Milsom, Cpl Wilson and Pte Howard for their work when the Boche’s mine was exploded at Givenchy on the 29th of November. The…